Azumanga Daioh: Entrance (vol. 1)

Reviewed By: Carla Land

ADV Films DVD

Review based on disk 1 (episodes 1-5)

Rating 13+

What it’s (basically) all about: This series covers daily life in a Japanese high school with a somewhat crazy homeroom teacher and her eclectic group of students.

Nitty Gritty: There’s no real plot to this series. It’s a “slice of life” type show. It’s a very high speed paced show, with short little stories that usually take no longer than half an episode.  Some of the jokes in it depend upon knowledge of certain aspects of Japanese culture, and these are explained in small bursts of text that appear on screen.

There isn’t any nudity or violence, but there is quite a bit of innuendo and Miss Yukari (the homeroom teacher) is a total flake- and a competitive one. There is some fan service (teachers and students in bikini’s), one admittedly lecherous teacher (Mr. Kimura “likes high school girls” and wants to teach his history class in the pool), and Miss Yukari gets drunk on her off time (and complains about “sleep barfing”).  In episode four there is an entire conversation between the students in the girls’ locker room about breast size.

Language isn’t too bad- “friggin’ crap,” bastard, ass, and damn are the most foul. 

Overall the characterization is well done and the stories are funny. There’s the ten year old prodigy, the “super-cool” girl who is lonely, the over the top competitive energy ball, and the spaced out transfer student (and that’s just a few of them.) One interesting thing to note is that even though it’s a boys/girls school there is little interaction outside of class with the boys.

Special features include production sketches, clean opening/ closing animation, DVD credits and previews for Panyo Panyo DI GI Charat, Happy Lesson (fan service), Puni Puni Poemy, Kino’s Journey, Kaleido Star, and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi- most of which are okay for all. (I’m not sure Puni Puni Poemy is okay for anybody, but the preview should be okay at least for teens.)

Survey says: I think this would be acceptable for most teen collections, or at the very least teen anime clubs. The drinking and lecherous teacher might push it into some adult collections, but they are over the top parody and teens will recognize this (though parents might not).

Personal Ad: I liked the show, though it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I have read that the manga is insanely popular in Japan, and I can see why that is. It’s a very funny parody of what life is like in Japanese high schools, and I liked that some of the in-jokes were explained.